Chicago Color Run 2013

Guess what? I did it. It happened. You might even say I’m a runner now. Steve and I ran in the Color Run last Sunday. We got out of bed at 5a.m. on a Sunday morning and went into the city to RUN! I know right? Hardly seems possible. But boy did we have a blast! Totally worth it. We didn’t run non-stop for the entire 5k but we did a pretty good show of it. If you are now familiar with the Color Run, it is mainly a fun-run type of thing with tons of people of all abilities and ages. It isn’t about running, it’s about having fun and getting a little messy.

Not only did we participate in this but I trained before hand and have gotten to the point where I can run for over a mile without stopping or dying and if I pace myself I can do 2 miles on a good day. My goal is to hit the 3 mile/5k point by the end of the summer and run in a legitimate 5k. I’ve almost gotten to the point where I enjoy running. I can’t believe it. I never thought in my lifetime I would ever say those words. 

What I like is that I am only competing with myself. I’m run to see how far I can go without stopping and try to do better than I did the last time I went out. I’m not doing it to win a race or burn a certain number of calories. I’m doing it to prove to myself that I can. Steve and I went to the Dick Pond walk2run program this spring to get us started and I remember the first time we ran non-stop for more than 5 minutes and I was ecstatic! Then the next week it was 6 minutes and before I knew it we were doing 15 minute intervals with no problem.  Then one day I just went out and didn’t pay attention to what my running app said, I just ran until I couldn’t and when I got home I said, “Hey I think I just ran over a mile without stopping.” And sure enough when I checked the app I had run 1.5 miles. I am 46 years old and doing something physically that I could not do when I was 16 years old. How amazing is that?

*It only took 2 showers and one swim in the pool to get all the blue dye out of my armpits!